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World Mental Health Awareness 2012 Day Blog Carnival

Happy World Mental Health Awareness Day (not to be confused with Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, which back in May). I’m spending my day with a terrible cold, trying not to throw up and writing an article on the health benefits of masturbation for men. Here are some other mental health awareness stories from around the web. Party on.

Ontario, Canada received a present from Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Public Heath Ontario, which today released a report on mental illness.It claims that more folks in Ontario have mental health problems than all types of cancers. The study didn’t even include folks with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. I’d be right at home in Ontario.

And, finally (because this cold is taking me down fast) US News and World Report asks “Does Neighborhood Income Affect Teens’ Mental Health?” Is anyone really surprised to know that the answer is “Yes”? Researchers looked into the lives of over 2,800 children from five major cities with lots of poor people — Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. Here’s a kicker sentence: Neither girls with health vulnerabilities nor boys without health vulnerabilities benefited from moving to a low-poverty area.

Gee, really? I wonder why this study was even attempted; perhaps to prove to filthy rich folk that poor people can get miserable? I remember when I went to an expensive private Christian school and was constantly told that you could be really happy if you were poor. However, none of my classmates were on food stamps and none were homeless. We do need studies on easing mental health symptoms, but do we really need studies to justify the freakin’ obvious?

Apparently, we do. I guess this is the study to help justify more studies about raising the minimum wage or lowering the cost of living. Naaahhhh — that makes too much sense.